by Paul R. Spitzzeri
There is certainly no shortage of interesting and instructive anecdotes relating to the history of the Workman and Temple family and one of the more notable members of the family was Josephine M. Workman (1882-1977), granddaughter of Homestead founders Nicolasa Urioste and William Workman and one of the seven children of their son Joseph M. Workman and his wife Josephine M. Belt.
Several posts here have noted that Josephine found stardom in Hollywood during the first half of the 1910s under the stage name of Princess Mona Darkfeather, with the actor starring in dozens of one-reel shorts using her Indian persona. It is a question as to whether Josephine had indigenous ancestry, either through her paternal grandmother, who was from Taos, New Mexico and had her children Joseph and Margarita baptized in the Indian Pueblo church, or her maternal grandmother, who was from Chile.
In any case, she, along with her husband and producer/director Frank (Akley) Montgomery, was popular enough to have her own production company at one point, though she is largely forgotten now well more than a century later. A few years ago, a remarkable donation was made of photographs from Josephine/Princess Mona that, after her death in 1977, were kept by her landlords and which were stored in a Victorian-era house in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles until the gift by the family.
As we prepare to catalog as well as to scan and restore, as best we can, the images, this seems like an opportune time to delve into a remarkable aspect of Josephine’s post-Hollywood life, which ended during the First World War as she was in her mid-thirties and too advanced in years to play Indian maidens, while films depicting such characters were also passé.
While Frank Montgomery continuing working in film crews, the couple’s financial fortunes clearly veered south after her career ended and, when the 1920 federal census was taken, the couple resided with her sister Agnes Stoll. “Mona Montgomery” had no occupation, while Montgomery was listed as a “Motion Picture Director,” though there is no known evidence he was working in that capacity at the time.
Perhaps because of straitened economic circumstances, Josephine, under the name of Josephine M. Akley, instituted legal proceedings in 1918, just as her film career ended, concerning her rights to land on the Rancho La Puente once owned by her father. There was something of a six-year odyssey in which there were two Los Angeles County Superior Court cases, one against her and the other in favor and an appeal to the California Supreme Court, which was another defeat.
While we’ll get into the details of these cases, especially testimony as to the circumstances of the 1870 deeding of over 800 acres to Joseph Workman by his father and some very interesting recollections that came out of that, we’ll begin with this first part by providing some background history of the parties, including the the defendant Charles N. Bassett, whose surname is still applied to the unincorporated community embraced within the Joseph Workman ranch.
As noted here previously, the Workman family settled on the Rancho La Puente in April 1842 once John Rowland secured a grant from Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado for four square leagues, somewhat less than 18,000 acres of what was former Mission San Gabriel land. The Workman selected a property on a knoll along the north bank of San José Creek and south of what was sometimes known as the Colorado Road leading east from Los Angeles towards the river of that name and now Valley Boulevard.
After more than a quarter century of ranching and farming and a few years after a partition with Rowland of La Puente, William Workman set aside several tracts of land for his ranch foreman, Frederick Lambourn, who was given 40 acres at the north-central edge, two sons, Thomas and William, of his daughter Margarita Temple and 500 acres to his son, Joseph. A prior post here featured a June 1870 map that showed these tracts.
The timing was notable with respect to Joseph, who, as a child, was sent to Baltimore to live with his father’s sister, Agnes Vickers, and her family, presumably for better educational opportunities. Within a few years after his aunt died in 1848, Joseph moved to Boonville in central Missouri to live with an uncle, David Workman and his wife and three sons. In 1854, the Workmans, including Joseph, migrated in a wagon train across the plains to California and a reunion, after at least a decade, with his parents and sister.
Immediately, Joseph was sent to central California to help superintend cattle ranching for his father and brother-in-law, F.P.F. Temple and he remained in that region for some fifteen years. Once he married Josephine Belt, who was raised in Stockton, he came south, but that tract on La Puente was expanded by more than 60% to include 814 acres. A deed was issued on 11 October 1870, but not recorded for 2 1/2 years, though we’ll get into why later.
Joseph and Josephine built a house, planted crops, and raised sheep on the ranch, which was exempted from the mortgage made out to Elias J. “Lucky” Baldwin in November 1875 as the troubled Temple and Workman bank borrowed nearly $350,000 to remain open. The infusion of funds failed and the institution closed permanently in mid-January 1876.
Four months later, the 76-year-old William Workman committed suicide—a month after that, in June 1876, Joseph and Josephine, who had three daughters (Mary, Agnes and Lucille) between 1870 and 1874, had their first of two sons, who they named after his late grandfather. A second son followed in 1879 and then a daughter Josephine was born in 1882, followed by a fifth daughter, Nellie, who died as a toddler.
By the time, Josephine was born, however, her parents decided to move from the ranch to Los Angeles, acquiring in 1882 a one-acre parcel from Joseph’s cousin, William H. Workman, in Boyle Heights, the community he founded several years before. The couple built an impressive house on Boyle Avenue, while leasing La Puente to tenant farmers and this income seems to have sustained their well-to-do lifestyle. This included what was almost certainly a fruitful period during the Boom of the Eighties, which peaked during the mayoral administration of William H. Workman.
Busts follow booms, of course, but it appears that Joseph and Josephine sought to maintain the lifestyle to which they’d become accustomed, but did so by taking on debt. The following decade included a national depression in 1893 and several years of drought and declining land prices also meant lower rent. The Workmans provided for the weddings and, it appears, the livelihoods of their daughters and sons-in-law, hosted parties that appeared to be somewhat lavish and invested in land in Los Angeles, including $10,000 for two lots southwest of downtown purchased early in 1889, some of this in Josephine’s name.
At the end of May 1891, Joseph deeded over to his wife 271 acres of the La Puente land, which had been divided into three tracts: one of 112 acres that included the house and surrounding land, 200 acres at the west end of the tract; and 501 acres at the east, so it appears the land involved was in the latter section. There was a purchase price of $30,000, but it is not known from where these funds derived or what the intent of the transaction was.
On 30 March 1893, however, Joseph took out an ad in the Los Angeles Times, offering the 271 acres for sale, stating the land was suitable for raising alfalfa, fruit and walnuts, while he was also willing to sell portions or conduct a property exchange. In its 9 June edition, the paper briefly noted that Josephine left town for a half-year European trip.
In early November, more trouble ensued as the German-American Savings Bank filed a foreclosure suit against the Workmans for $4,500 and interest with a mortgage on their Boyle Heights residence and lot. A week later, the Southern California National Bank went to court to recover $320 on a promissory note from the couple.
In early February 1894, the issues continued to mount as the German-American Savings Bank initiated more legal action on a note and the foreclosure of a mortgage with the demand being for about $16,400. The 9 June edition of the Los Angeles Herald in the delinquent tax listings showed that Joseph and Josephine owed about $190 on the three La Puente tracts.
Less than two weeks later, Josephine was the target of a foreclosure lawsuit brought by the Metropolitan Loan Association on a debt of almost $2,700, but there were co-defendants, including her husband, merchant Samuel Hellman and several others, including Joseph’s nephew, Walter P. Temple—these other figures were likely those who were sureties for the mortgage.
At the end of 1894, yet another legal matter was launched as Josephine was sued by the Security Loan and Trust Company for the foreclosure of a mortgage for that western 200 acres of the La Puente ranch for a debt of $4,350. To date, the located legal listings involved north of $30,000 which was owed by the Workmans.
On 31 January 1895, the Los Angeles Express ran a legal notice for a Notice of Foreclosure Sale filed by the German-American Savings Bank for three separate filings involving Joseph and Josephine and a host of others, including two of their daughters and their husbands, the Security Loan and Trust Company, the Los Angeles National Bank, and a furniture company.
This involved a sum of about $28,000 and involved the Boyle Heights home property, lots in a n area southwest of downtown Los Angeles, and the 814-acre La Puente ranch, parts of it being under a lease. Los Angeles County Sheriff John Burr was charged with handling these foreclosure sales, often known as sheriff’s sales.
Two weeks later, another suit was filed by Joseph H. Burke of Los Nietos (Pico Rivera/Downey) against the Workmans on an outstanding note of over $1,300. In March, Burke, who’d previously loaned money to Joseph’s sister, Margarita Temple, redeemed that western 200 acres of the La Puente ranch from Security Loan and Trust for $6,000.
The 12 May 1895 issue of the Times included a notice from “Dr. L. Gossman” who informed readers that “I have leased the spacious J.M. Workman residence on Boyle Heights” for “a strictly first-class hygienic sanitarium” that was to open around the first of June. With greater Los Angeles known as a “health-seeker’s paradise,” such institutions were common throughout the region, though Gossman added that the Workman place “is beautifully situated” with fine views and close access to downtown.
The loss of their house also involved the inevitable separation of Joseph and Josephine, who remained in this situation until his death a half-dozen years later. The environment continued to worsen in August when the Times of the 18 August reported on “An Attempt to Redeem the Workman Estate.”
The paper referred to “an exciting and somewhat dramatic scene” involving “the unsuccessful attempt” by more than 20 small creditors, almost all of these other than those mentioned above, “to redeem a portion” of the La Puente ranch “from the hands of the German-American Savings Bank.” Following the aforementioned foreclosure action on the $28,000 debt, a sheriff’s sale was held and that amount being the winning bid from the bank.
The Times observed that the Workmans “gave a quit-claim deed,” meaning that they forfeited all claim to the ranch, “to George W. Bassett, who succeeded to the interest of the German-American Savings Bank.” The other creditors, however, assigned their claims to C.A. Ball, who sought to redeem the “home place” of 100 acres, valued at $10,000, but sold at the sheriff’s sale for 35% of that amount, with Ball hoping to redeem it for a determined price of $3,759.
It took until the end as “the affair dragged along” with the smaller creditors making their last-minute move through Ball and, “late in the afternoon, the claims began to be paid off, and the entire piece of property was apparently safe when the [Sheriff’s Department] office closed.” A deputy took the funds to the German-American institution, but it was found that the creditors neglected to record their transaction documents, upon which “the money was at once returned to Mr. Ball, who accepted it, acknowledging the mistake, and the deed to the whole property t the bank was forthwith executed by the Sheriff.” Consequently, on 23 August, Sheriff John Burr deeded the ranch to the bank for a little under $22,400.
In mid-November, the La Puente ranch was acquired from the bank by Oscar T. (not Walter, as erroneously stated above) Bassett, a wealthy El Paso, Texas capitalist, who’d been investing in local real estate for a couple of years, including the 300-acre Burlingame Ranch at Gardena, for which he paid $41,000 in cash.
The Express of 16 November 1895 recorded that
The Workman ranch of 814 acres, in the San Gabriel valley, has been sold to O.T. Bassett of Texas for $60,000. Mr. Bassett will subdivide the property into 20-acre lots and put them on the market.
Five days later, Sheriff Burr transferred the western 200 acres of the tract to the bank for just below $6,000—which officially redeemed the overall $28,000 debt by combining this amount with the $22,400 deed over three months prior. With these legal niceties completed, Bassett took possession of the Joseph Workman Ranch and we’ll continue the story in part two.
There’s an old Chinese saying: it’s easy to transition from frugality to luxury, but difficult to revert from luxury to frugality. This adage aptly reflects Joseph Workman’s later life of financial difficulties and legal troubles.